Miles City teacher honored for help in finding missing teen

Tips on what to do when someone you care about goes missing. Video by Jordan Fenster/lohud
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Valerie Pachl is honored Friday by Bryan Lockerby, administrator of the state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation. (Montana Department of Justice)(Photo: State Department of Justic)

A Miles City teacher was honored Friday for her help in finding a missing 17-year old girl allegedly abducted by her non-custodial father.

Custer County High School teacher/counselor Valerie Pachl was given a plaque from state officials for providing information that helped locate the girl.

On March 7, Miles City authorities received an emergency call from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Child Abuse Hotline, indicating that a Native American teen left her foster home on a school bus that morning, but never arrived at school, officials said.

State Department of Justice officials said it was initially thought she had run away with her non-custodial father.

The Custer County Sheriff’s Office soon had information regarding the missing teen entered as a runaway into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center Missing Person File.

Pachl remembered the girl saying her non-custodial father was threatening to take her, as well as some money coming to her, officials said. He also reportedly had plans to force her to work for her grandmother. Pachl said she strongly believed the student was taken against her will, officials said.

Pachl contacted Lost & Missing in Indian Country, which reached out to Montana’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse at the state DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation.

Pachl’s observations and contact information were shared with the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. Next, a record was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a clearinghouse for missing persons. Other missing persons agencies were notified as well, officials said.

Tribal authorities protected the funds being held for the missing student so her non-custodial father could not access them. Ultimately, the girl was rescued and her non-custodial father was arrested in Oklahoma; charges are pending, officials said.

Pachl was honored Friday at a ceremony in Miles City. Bryan Lockerby, administrator of the DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation, presented her with a plaque in appreciation of the critical information she provided.

“It’s people like you who go above and beyond to provide protection and support to Montana’s children,” Lockerby said. “You got involved, shifted from concerned citizen to active participant, and made a difference in the future of a young woman likely destined to grow up under difficult circumstances, with little hope of escape.”

For more information about Montana’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse, visit https://dojmt.gov/missing-persons/.